Last night, with our son away competing in the Indiana High School E-Sports Finals, Jean and I had a dinner alone while (again) quarantining against the surging pandemic here in flyover country. We had some D'Artangan vension chops that we broiled and served with mashed potatoes and sauteed baby bok choy. With this simple meal, Jean had requested a "very good wine" so I opened a treasured rarity:
2010 Gonon St. Joseph [note: this was not the unicorn Vieilles Vignes bottling that consists of Raymond Trollat's old vines] nose: pungent green olives overlaying subtle blackberry aromas palate: subtly fruity, savory, almost saline, virtually weightless, brilliant acidityThis was the second of three bottles that I'd managed to secure back when Gonon was still reasonably priced. Cellartracker tells me that it now fetches $220 at auction, but I'm not motivated to sell my last bottle.
This wine is at an interesting stage in its development now*, having shed much of its youthful fruit and taken on more savory notes. It will, I expect, continue to gain aromatic complexity and become more delicate yet with time (this is extrapolating from the older bottles of Verset Cornas that I've had)
Jean did in fact proclaim this to be one of the best bottles of wine that she's had in a long time. As usual, I found the pairing with venison to showcase the character of the wine beautifully, neither overpowering it nor being overpowered by it.
At this point, I'm down to single bottles of the '09 and '10. As with Verset and Chave in earlier eras, I will hold onto these remaining relics of a bygone era until an occasion merits opening one (Dale, if I can get out to NYC next year, I'll lug one along)
- This is from our passively cooled, below-grade cellar (mean temp 57 F). Bottles stored in a cooler or more constant environment might be expected to be not as far along in their development.
Mark Lipton